Okonjo-Iweala and Jonathan
Jonathan congratulates Okonjo-Iweala on appointment in Twitter Board
NGOZI Okonjo-Iweala, former Nigeria’s finance minister has been appointed to the board of directors of Twitter.
Mrs Okonjo-Iweala served under former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo from 2003 to 2006 and Goodluck Jonathan from 2011 to 2015.
Jonathan has sent a congratulatory message to Okonjo-Iweala, reposing confidence in her.
“I am not surprised that Dr. Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has been appointed into the board of Twitter. If anyone merits such an appointment, it is definitely a woman who helped her nation manage its finances most prudently and was instrumental to pulling many millions out of poverty. Ngozi, I am proud of you. You served Nigeria most meritoriously and I am more than certain that you would do the same at Twitter. Congratulations. GEJ”, Jonathan said on a Facebook post.
Although Okonjo-Iweala has been severely criticized at home by opposition ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) global organisations have found her as a treasure trove of ideas on economy.
She tweeted the news of her appointment, saying she was “excited” to work on a platform that connects people and ideas.
Twitter, like other Silicon Valley companies, has been criticised for not being inclusive enough.
With Mrs Okonjo-Iweala’s appointment, Twitter’s 10-member board now has three women, two of whom are black.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was born 13 June 1954 is a Nigerian, an economist and the first female Minister of Finance.
She served two terms as Finance Minister of Nigeria (2003-2006, 2011-2015) under the leadership of president Olusegun Obasanjo and president Umaru Musa Yaradu’a respectively. She was the Managing Director of the World Bank (2007-2011) and chairs the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) and the African Risk Capacity (ARC).
In July 2017, she was named an independent non-executive director at Standard Chartered Plc in the United Kingdom.
She is also a Senior Adviser at Lazard.
Okonjo-Iweala is from Ogwashi-Ukwu, Delta State, where her father Professor Chukwuka Okonjo is the Eze (King) from the Obahai Royal Family of Ogwashi-Ukwu.
Okonjo-Iweala was educated at St. Anne’s School, Molete, Ibadan, the International School Ibadan and Harvard University, graduating magna cum laude with an AB in Economics in 1976, and earned her PhD in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981 with a thesis title Credit policy, rural financial markets, and Nigeria’s agricultural development. She received an International Fellowship from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) that supported her doctoral studies.